This invention relates to pickups for stringed musical instruments, and deals more particularly with such a pickup which produces a single composite output signal having components derived from the vibration of all of the strings and wherein the contribution made by each string to such composite output signal may be readily varied.
Electromagnetic pickups for guitars and other stringed musical instruments are well known. A common design of such a pickup is typified by the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 2,909,092 wherein each of a plurality of bar magnets is positioned near a respective one of the instrument's strings and are surrounded by a common signal generating coil so that the output signal from the coil is made up of components from all of the strings which happen to be vibrating at any given time. In many instances, it is desirable to vary or control the contribution of each string to such output signal and this has conventionally been accomplished, as for example in the aforementioned patent, by providing a means for adjustably moving each bar magnet toward or away from its associated string.
The general object of this invention is, therefore, to provide an electromagnetic pickup having an improved means for controlling the individual contribution of each string to the output signal, and a further object is to provide such a pickup having improved immunity to stray magnetic and electric fields.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention and from the drawings forming a part hereof.